Page 25 of Laying it Bare Backstage

Her own eyebrows peeked up over her sunglasses. “I do not want anyone else seeing my naked body. Even if it is at night.”

“I would never put you in that position. Besides, your body is for my eyes only.” A low growl crept up my chest. “If we would plan to do that; I’d take you to a private island where we are the only ones there. And I wouldn’t allow you to pack any clothes.”

“I don’t believe you have your own private island, so I think I’m safe.”

“You would go with me if I did?” I couldn’t keep the hopeful tone out of my question. I would love to go away somewhere with her. Preferable just the two of us, but a vacation to any place neither of us have been before would be perfect. And I’d love to take her away now, just so I could keep her safe, but it wouldn’t solve the problem. The threat would be here when we returned. More and more I was completely convinced these happenings were not lone instances of bad luck, but connected in a twisted way.

She pretended to mull over the question, tapping her finger to her bottom lip. “There is a really good chance I would say yes. You haven’t given me any reason not to trust you.”

Pulling her finger from her lip, I pressed mine to them in a delicate kiss. “You can trust me always.” A boulder of guilt settled in the pit of my stomach. I was going to have to come clean about the towing expenses. Maybe after I treated her to the beautiful site tonight. Then she would hopefully be in too good of a mood to yell at me too much. But then something occurred to me. “Do you have a pair of water shoes? If so, did you bring them? Because the trail down to the beach is pretty steep. You don’t need any more injuries.” I really wanted to take her tonight, but I also wanted to keep her safe. I tried to keep the disappointment off of my face as I mulled over the fact that this might not be quite the soundest suggestion at this time.

“I’ll be fine. I’ll be walking with you and you won’t allow anything bad to happen to me. Besides, I don’t want to stop living for the next couple of days. This sounds fun and something I can do that doesn’t require straining my eyes or vigorous activity.” She shot me a flirty smirk. “And yes, I do have a pair of water shoes and I packed them just in case, since you’re so close to the beach. Now that we have our exciting evening plans made; did you get a lot of lyrics written today, despite the interruption?” I couldn’t see her eyes through her sunglasses, but her lips pulled into a brief frown.

“You are never an interruption.” I kissed her forehead. “I would have paused to help out any one of my friends and you are many steps above them. But in answer to your question; I did get a good bit accomplished today. I’m pretty confident I’ll have things ready for when we are ready for the next step. If anything, being with you opens me up to a lot more. I’ve always felt things more intensely; that’s why I can write the songs that I do. But being with you helps me lay bare my feelings even more passionately abouteverything. And not just for love ballads. We can have a couple on the album, but we need to make sure we have plenty of hard hitting rock ones as well. Although I’m toying with one that is a bit of a combo. I got the idea watching you at the beach Saturday night. Finding the girl of your dreams out in the moonlight and then she drifts away like the waves of the ocean by the time the sun rises.”

“That gave me goosebumps. I think that one is going to be perfect. Although which of yours aren’t.” She shot me a silly grin. “Sometimes it’s so weird to think ‘my boyfriend is Teak Pierce’.”

“I’m a real person.” I raised my eyebrow at her.

“Duh. But I never in a million years would have thought I’d be dating you.”

“Well, you’re stuck with me.”

“Good thing I really like the idea then. And at least I can say I don’t wear t-shirts that have my boyfriend’s picture on them. Now that would be really weird.” She scrunched her nose up like she thought that was a distasteful idea.

But she looked so adorable doing it; I couldn’t resist dropping a kiss onto her nose. “I would wear a shirt with your picture on it.” I teased, even though I was serious.

Tugging down her sunglasses, she shot me a ‘yeah right’ look. Then she pushed them back into place. “What is your next step after writing the songs? Do you have to head into a recording studio?”

“Yes. But we won’t do any recording until we make sure the songs mesh with the other guitars and drums and make sure the other guys like the sound and lyrics too. I wasn’t even thinking when I brought you home; do you want me to contact your parents for you? And what about Ivy?”

“No to both.” She released a sigh. “I talked to my parents yesterday, but I’m not telling them anything about what’s going on. Now if I would have been seriously hurt in the accident, I would want them to know. But I don’t want them making the four hour trip because of this craziness. But thank you for thinking of them. And as for Ivy; I’ll tell her about it the next time I see her. Otherwise she’ll be banging down your door.”

As if just mentioning her name summoned her, in the next moment, the doorbell rang.

She placed her hand on my arm. “Did you already call her and that was just to warn me?”

“No. I didn’t even think about those things until just now. First, I was really worried about you and then I was getting you settled. And then I got absorbed in my music.”

The doorbell rang again. Followed by some impatient banging.

“In case it is her, you better hurry or shewillbust down your door.”

Taking Serenity’s hand, the two of us stepped inside and headed down the hallway to the front door. When I pulled it open, Ivy brushed past me, with Ascher on her heels.

She whirled around and narrowed her eyes at Serenity. “Hey, rude Ho-bag. Why did you not call and tell me about this morning? I ran into Corinne at lunch time at a little café and she told me. She gets a call but not me? Especially with all of this other shit going on around you.” Hands on her hips, she angrily tapped her foot on the floor.

Serenity had perched her sunglasses on top of her head, so she gave Ivy a pointed look. “If it would have been more serious, I’m sure Teak would have contacted you through Ascher. And I’m not supposed to be on my phone. It was simple to hit the missed call notification to call Corinne without bothering my eyes. And I had to call her since she’s my boss. I had to let her know why I didn’t show up to work today. And I figured I’d be seeing you soon and I could tell you about it then. Besides, it’s not like a car accident is a strange occurrence.”

Well, it was when you combined it with the other shit going on in Serenity’s life at the moment. Although not really strange so much as suspicious. But I kept my comment to myself. I didn’t want to stress her out any more than she already was because it wasn’t good for her concussion.

Ivy stormed up to Serenity but softened her movements before tugging her into a gentle hug. “I worry about you, bestie. And even though Corinne assured me you were fine, just taking a day off or so, I had to come see for myself.”

“I worry about you too. And thank you for that. I didn’t intentionally keep it from you. But I just wanted to come home and take a nap. And I didn’t want to do anything to irritate my head. Besides, I didn’t even call my parents.” She pulled away from Ivy and gave her a silly grin.

“Well, that was just smart thinking on your part. They would have jumped in the car and sped up here and been even crazier fussing over you than me. Although you did notice I dialed it back some since I knew you had a concussion.”

“Yes, thank you for that. Let’s go chill out on the deck and let the guys talk shop. Since you dragged Ascher over here, they might as well be productive and get some work done.” Serenity grabbed Ivy’s hand and led her down the hallway.

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